On March 20, President Donald Trump signed an government order directing his Training Secretary Linda McMahon to start closing the Division of Training. The signing was an impeccably staged ceremony full with state flags and cute youngsters sitting at desks behind him.
Whereas Trump believes returning decision-making energy over training to the states will empower dad and mom, there are some essential particulars he both hasn’t considered or isn’t sharing with the remainder of us, like what is going to occur to scholar loans and assist for kids with disabilities.
If information like this has you frightened, you’re not alone: Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has been an outspoken critic of the transfer.
“Shutting down the Division of Training will hurt hundreds of thousands of kids in our nation’s public colleges, their households and hardworking academics. Class sizes will soar, educators might be fired, particular teaching programs might be lower and faculty will get much more costly,” he mentioned in a press release.
Though solely an act of Congress can fully shutter a authorities company, the administration is already doing every little thing it could to strip the DOE all the way down to the bone, together with the March 11 announcement of a 50 p.c discount of employees. If Trump will get his method, these are a few of the methods a closure of the Division of Training might influence Black college students on this nation.
The Largest Supply of Loans
One of many areas a DOE closure could possibly be felt essentially the most is the distribution of economic help for training. The Division of Training oversees the workplace of Federal Pupil Help (FSA), the most important supplier of economic help for college students in america. The workplace oversees the administration of economic help applications that make post-secondary training extra inexpensive, together with grants, work-study, and loans, together with offering free help to households as they navigate the monetary support course of. In accordance with a 2020 report from the Division of Training, over 70 p.c of Black college students acquired grants in comparison with 61 p.c of white college students. Near 50 p.c of Black college students took out loans in comparison with practically 40 p.c of whites.
Funding for Public Training
Though many of the funding for public colleges comes out of your state and native authorities, there are two key areas the place the DOE oversees Federal funding that helps public colleges. Title I supplies cash to serve low-income communities. In accordance with Training Week, Congress permitted greater than $18 billion for Title I funding in 2023. The People with Disabilities Training Act (IDEA) supplies cash to assist free training that meets the wants of scholars with disabilities. In 2024, Congress approved greater than $15 billion to assist this initiative.
What Your Little one Learns
One in every of Trump’s greatest arguments in favor of closing the DOE is his “anti-woke” agenda. Though the Division doesn’t affect what’s taught in colleges, President Trump wasted no time utilizing his energy to vary issues.
On Jan. 29, he signed an Govt Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in Ok-12 Education” which might revoke Federal funds from Ok-12 establishments that assist something the administration believes is a “dangerous” and “anti-American,” together with instructing about race and racism.
The order argues that “harmless youngsters are compelled to undertake identities as both victims or oppressors solely based mostly on their pores and skin shade and different immutable traits” and “younger women and men are made to query whether or not they had been born within the flawed physique and whether or not to view their dad and mom and their actuality as enemies to be blamed.”